Bats Europe launches smart order router

Exchange execution venue Bats Europe has launched a pan-European smart order routing service for best execution access to multiple market centres including exchanges, MTFs and dark pools.

Under the new facility, dubbed Cycle, orders are routed to pan-European market centres, searching for liquidity at the best price points up to, and including, the limit price on the original order.

The routing fee for Cycle will be 0.50 basis points for all securities. The routing fee for accessing dark pools is 0.30 basis points for all securities. Fees for accessing Bats Europe order books remain unchanged.

The move represent a further blurring of the lines between brokers and exchanges in the post-MiFID pan-European trading landscape. With leading brokers opening their own dark pools and converting to MTFs, execution venues such as Bats are moving into traditional broker territory with the launch of liquidity management and off-exchange order-routing services.

Mark Hemsley, CEO of Bats Europe says smart order routing is one of a series of new features that the MTF will roll out in the coming months as it competes for market share.

"Our new smart order routing solution is designed to give Bats Europe's market participants even more choice for deploying their trading strategies whilst minimising market access complexities and costs of meeting best execution criteria," he says.

The fast-growing MTF, which launched less than 15 months ago, saw pan-European trading volume break the EUR2 billion barrier for the first time on Friday, setting a record for the fourth straight day.